Thursday, 14 October 2010

Rob Brautigam

Rob Brautigam in his Amsterdam flat at a time when he was a

massive fan of Bishop Manchester whose framed photograph

(one of four images) is on the wall (top, left) in the background.

"First of all I would like to express my gratitude to Sean Manchester and a few of his associates. Thank you, Bishop Sean. Thank you Lady Sarah. What else ? Very much obliged (a little more sincerely this time) for your hospitality : Diana Brewster and son. Thank you Brother Keith. Without your help I would never have solved one of the many mysteries surrounding Sean." - Rob Brautigam

Brother Keith commented about the above sarcasm found on Mr Brautigam's website:

In June 1990, Rob Brautigam wrote to Bishop Seán Manchester at the Highgate offices of the Vampire Research Society to apply for membership in that organisation. Mr Brautigam subscribed at that time to a strong belief in the existence of real, ie supernatural, vampires and, moreover, their control. He had not yet embarked upon any newsletter or magazine production of his own; though that would soon alter.

Mr Brautigam wrote: “It has been with the greatest interest and admiration that I have occasionally read about your activities over the years. … It goes without saying that I would very much like to join your Society. So could you please tell me if it is possible for me to be a member?”

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Over the following year and a half, Bishop Seán Manchester arranged three meetings with Rob Brautigam. By the second and penultimate rendezvous it was transparent that the Dutchman was not suitable membership material for a serious research society. In the interim Mr Brautigam had launched a home-produced magazine titled International Vampire. He went out of his way to compliment Bishop Manchester on his “truly magnificent The Highgate Vampire” which the Dutchman described as “a masterpiece of vamirography.” Brautigam continued: “I have been rereading the book ever since I got it. And I am impatiently looking forward to the moment when the revised edition will be on the market” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 22 August 1990).

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When the updated and revised edition was published some months later, Rob Brautigam enthusiastically sang its praises in International Vampire and elsewhere. By this time Mr Brautigam had made contact with Kev Demant who also admired the same author’s work. They described themselves as “fans of Seán Manchester.” Mr Demant would later apply for membership in the same research society. His application was also rejected. By his own admission, Kev Demant had nothing to contribute to vampirological research, having hitherto only read fiction on the subject. Despite being refused membership, Mr Brautigam and Mr Demant maintained a regular and amicable correspondence with Bishop Seán Manchester until the end of 1992. Some of this was to solicit contributions for Mr Brautigam’s magazine, but the direction now being taken by the Dutchman witnessed a certain reluctance on Bishop Manchester’s part to provide further material for International Vampire. Thus, by the end of 1992, the relationship had begun to sour.

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.At the beginning of that same year, Rob Brautigam revealed his increasing interest in a dishevelled character living in a London bed-sitting room who was sentenced to almost five years’ imprisonment in 1974 for desecration and vandalism linked to pseudo-occult rituals at Highgate Cemetery, and sending black magic threats through the post. Mr Brautigam referred to his “growing David Farrant File of Shame” in correspondence to Bishop Manchester, dated 30 January 1972, and thought the publicity-seeker to be no more than a “misguided simpleton” (something he was quickly disabused of despite David Farrant over the years having acquired the nick-name "The Devil's Fool")..

The person Rob Brautigam referred to as a "simpleton."

The Dutchman’s exchanges with Bishop Seán Manchester ended abruptly on 20 December 1992 with confirmation that he had entered into correspondence with David Farrant, while also giving the impression that this contact was now over. “As to my brief correspondence with Farrant,” wrote Brautigam, “you can start breathing again, for there is no point now in continuing it any longer. … I still admire you as a most gifted writer, and nothing can ever change that. I will continue to think of it as a privilege that I have had the pleasure of meeting you and corresponding with you” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 20 December 1992).

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Bishop Manchester wrote further, but gained no response and was never to hear from Mr Brautigam again. The puzzle was solved some time later when it became clear that Rob Brautigam had entered into an alliance with David Farrant.

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The Dutchman started to describe himself as a major vampirologist; indeed “the only vampire expert in the Netherlands,” which to many came as something of a surprise to those who were genuinely expert. This sudden claim, something of a revelation to Bishop Manchester at the time, appeared in the Dutch Sunday tabloid Zondagsnieuws in 1992. Reggie Naus, a Dutch correspondent in contact with Bishop Manchester, wrote:

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“About a year ago he appeared on a Dutch talk show alongside Chorondzon Vanian, a vampiroid in a black tuxedo, wearing sunglasses inside a studio, with long sharp fangs in his mouth. After Vanian told the audience he would live forever, Rob Brautigam told them a vampire would go out at night and ‘drink fresh blood from young virgins.’ I find it rather curious that a ‘vampire expert’ would believe a vampire can only drink the blood of virgins” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 21 March 1996).

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Mr Naus would reveal a disturbing development: “Brautigam's website seems to have become a meeting place for vampiroids, with contact advertisements of people claiming to be 450 years old and similar nonsense” (Correspondence to Bishop Seán Manchester, 15 May 1999)..

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Mr Farrant on "a late night jaunt" in Highgate Cemetery in 1970.

David Farrant's fraudulent claim that he was somehow part of a serious investigation into the supernatural goings on at Highgate Cemetery are exposed to the light of day when anyone who actually knew him at the time is heard. Farrant's first wife, Mary, was certainly around and she gave testimony as a defence witness under oath at her husband's trials at the Old Bailey in June 1974. This is what was recorded in a national newspaper by a court reporter:

.“The wife of self-styled occult priest David Farrant told yesterday of giggles in the graveyard when the pubs had closed. ‘We would go in, frighten ourselves to death and come out again,’ she told an Old Bailey jury. Attractive Mary Farrant — she is separated from her husband and lives in Southampton — said they had often gone to London’s Highgate Cemetery with friends ‘for a bit of a laugh.’ But they never caused any damage. ‘It was just a silly sort of thing that you do after the pubs shut,’ she said. Mrs Farrant added that her husband’s friends who joined in the late night jaunts were not involved in witchcraft or the occult. She had been called as a defence witness by her 28-year-old husband. They have not lived together for three years” (The Sun, 21 June 1974).

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The concensus view four decades ago was that Mr Farrant amounted to nothing more than a lone publicity-seeker in search of a convenient bandwagon to jump on. This opinion was reached due to the plethora of first-hand evidence from his contemporaries who knew his claims to be bogus. His publicity stunts nevertheless landed him in jail with a prison sentence of four years and eight months.

“Farrant was a fool. Fascinated by witchcraft … he couldn’t keep his interests to himself. He was a blatant publicist. He told this newspaper of his activities, sent photographs and articles describing his bizarre activities” (Peter Hounam, Editor, Hornsey Journal, 16 July 1974).

Another newspaper reporting on a court appearance where Mr Farrant had apparently orchestrated his own arrest (this time in a churchyard, where witchcraft had supplanted vampires as his vehicle for publicity) recorded:

“Mr P J Bucknell, prosecuting, said Mr Farrant had painted circles on the ground, lit with candles, and had told reporters and possibly the police of what he was doing. ‘This appears to be a sordid attempt to obtain publicity,’ he said” (Hampstead & Highgate Express, 24 November 1972).

Following his brief six month stint as a lone “vampire hunter,” David Farrant hung up his cross and stake and replaced them with pentagrams, voodoo dolls and ritual daggers. This led to further arrests and a stiff prison sentence. Far from showing any remorse for his behaviour, Mr Farrant has exploited his criminal past to the full in a life devoted to phoney witchcraft, pseudo-occult claims and malicious pamphleteering..

Rob Brautigam, however, states on his Dutch website that David Farrant has been “investigating the phenomena in Highgate Cemetery from the very beginning.” This is impossible, even were it plausible. When the vampiric spectre was first being sighted at Highgate Cemetery, Mr Farrant would have been a mere teenager. He was living on the Continent when the phenomenon reared its head to two convent schoolgirls which brought it to the attention of Bishop Seán Manchester. Indeed, France was where he met his Irish wife, Mary Olden. Newspaper reports, court records, and various interviews on tape at the time, confirm that David Farrant only learned about the rumoured vampire when he drank in local pubs in January 1970. He somewhat unconvincingly claims to have seen it himself around this time, and wrote the following to a local newspaper:."Some nights I walk home past the gates of Highgate Cemetery. On three occasions I have seen what appeared to be a ghost-like figure inside the gates at the top of Swains Lane. The first occasion was on Christmas Eve. I saw a grey figure for a few seconds before it disappeared into the darkness. The second sighting, a week later, was also brief. Last week, the figure appeared long enough for me to see it much more clearly, and now I can think of no other explanation than this apparition being supernatural. I have no knowledge in this field and I would be interested to hear if any other readers have seen anything of this nature." - David Farrant, "Letters to the Editor," Hampstead & Highgate Express, 6 February 1970..
Mr Farrant wrote to Bishop Seán Manchester prior to his arrest in August 1970 and also during his remand at Brixton Prison. What he wrote is completely at odds with his later claims and certainly supports the recorded facts according to Bishop Manchester, ie that David Farrant was nothing more than a lone, would-be vampire hunter who acted solely to achieve self-publicity in the media; someone who had absolutely no connection whatsoever to the investigation already in progess into the supernatural happenings at Highgate Cemetery.

The last word (as found on his website) goes to the Dutchman:

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"Sincere and well-meant thanks to David Farrant, who was willing to discuss and share his information about the case (unlike some). Thank you very much, David."- Rob Brautigam (14 April 2009)